Interieur - 21.10.10

International Design Biennale 'Interieur', Kortrijk, Belgium.

Renowed as one of the global events for contemporary design trends, the 22nd International Design Biennale 'Interieur' boasts designs that all followed the same theme 'The New World' - a subject matter offering a large variation in interpretation.
With great relevance to the project brief's we are currently following at KHM, it was nice to see objects in person as opposed to flat images on a computer screen. Getting up close and looking at the way in which designs had been manufactured and discussing issues such as ergonomics and aesthetics with the designers themselves was a great way to get a greater understanding of their purpose of design. After 6 hours of wandering and a bag full of design leaflets later, I left the Biennale feeling inspired and ready to get sketching as soon as got my hands on a sketch book.
One criticism though, in my opinion I felt that a lot of the designs were beginning to take on the same structures and at points I found myself wondering if we had already seen the design before. Without trying to be too clever the designs that were more successful were the ones that were simple but were effective.

Capturing the designs that insprired me.

Re:mix

The final concept.

To coincide with the celebrations of swap shops in the surroundings areas of Mechelen it was apt for us to take part in a project that 'upcycled' previously unwanted items, giving them a complete redesign and creating an entirely new function.

My original piece was an old cassette player (which can be seen in it's original state at the beginning of the presentation video below). Originally I thought that I was going to be able to rip open the cassette player and use the internal parts to create something new and exciting, but on closer inspection there was not an awful lot of parts that I felt could be used to do this. Next I toyed with the idea of trying to fix the player so that it's original function would be made possible again and just like an iPod, create some sort of protective shell so that it could last another 30 years. Although this was a nice idea, the need for video cassette players is not very high - plus when taking a look inside again I fused it by unearthing the wire...whoops! Oh well they say things happen for a reason.
Whilst rummaging around the interior functions of the player I began looking at the mechanical elements and looked at the different ways in which I could try and use these in a design help people with everyday tasks, e.g. the counter mechanism, could it be used as a pedometer? What about an egg timer for the perfect eggs? Exercise counter...? The list was endless.
The slow, fluid movement of the opening mechanism of the cassette player was something that I decided to pursue and look at in more detail. Most people when I showed them the cassette player opened the tape deck and commented on the movement which I thought was quite interesting. Looking at lots of different designs in which this movement could be exploited I finally settled on the idea of a jewellery box in which only the most prized possessions could be kept. Although the area in which the jewellery was kept is limited and quite small, I felt that by altering the spring release for a wider opening, the 'compartment' where the jewellery would reside could have been made bigger but through previous experience from myself the smaller the jewellery box the better - too much space just means you try and cram in as much as you can!! The space within the tape deck provides adequate room for the most personal pieces of jewellery a person owns.

The presentation animation showing the whole process, start to finish.





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Furniture Animation

I've talked a lot about the chair that I have made so far. Hopefully I've explained well enough how the table slides out from underneath the chair but I've made a little animation to show exactly how this works...

Action!

Furniture Project

Last week we finished our furniture project.

For the presentation side of things we decided to present our ideas with the use of a massive timeline. This was a very useful method because this was similar to the way we worked as a group throughout the project. Originally we were confining ourselves to our own individual and group sketchbooks and were banging our heads against a brick wall. Limiting ourselves and not allowing our creative minds to be free, the first week really was a struggle - we just could not latch onto any decent ideas!

Ripping our sketchbooks apart and lining our studio walls, we were able to see all the group member's thought processes. Brainstorming and sketching basic ideas allowed us to expand on these and move around the wall freely, adding to each other's ideas. This was really useful and after a small amount of time we were all on the same wavelength - our initial idea was born.

The workshop was a steep learning curve for me! Over the past 6 weeks I have learnt so many new skills and I am sure that I am going to be able to put these into practice for future projects.

This view shows the finger joints at the front of the seat.

Side profile of the seat.


The table sits 10mm away from each of the edges of the seat creating the illusion that it is floating.

A back view of how the table sits in the chair.


A view of the table sliding out of the chair.


The finished table and chair.

Furniture Project

A little update on the furniture project...

This week we have been focusing on the side supports for the chair - it's crucial that we get these right as this is what is going to make the chair stable. Using butt joints to connect them to the main frame, the outer skin is made more solid. The image below shows the process that was undertook while creating these.


The side supports are made from Birch Plywood and are cut so that the outside edge is flush with the outer edge of the oak base (See above exploded view). The angle at which the Birch Ply intersects the oak made it slightly difficult when cutting so great care had to be taken to insure that the angle was not altered.

A certain amount of thought has been taken when making these side supports as any discrepancy could make the chair unstable when a load was applied.

While cutting the oak for the length of the seat, we made a slight mistake and cut the wood too short (see below).
With the width of the oak being 24mm short we had to think of something to make it wider so that the oak would be sitting on the Birch Ply (the whole point of the supports). A solution that we came up with was to cut two bits of oak, both 12mm wide, that mimicked the shape of the backrest. These were not simply a square shape and were set at 75º.

The angle at which the chair sits against the support.

Template used to mark angle onto wood.

Cutting these parts could have been hard but we made a template that could be drawn around. This was such a time saver and there was no fiddling about with protractors!

We have yet to attach these pieces to the final chair so I cannot really comment on the effectiveness of these yet. Hopefully tomorrow, we will test these and see whether we have solved the problem. If not it's back to the drawing boards as they say.

I thought in this post I should include what our final design should look like seeing as in the last one I just talked about what we hoped for. Also below, is an annotated page from my sketchbook showing the thinking process that had to be undertook for parts of the chair.

Furniture Project - Workshop Based

Thought I should give you a preview of what I've been up to lately...
Brief: design a well made and fully considered piece of furniture.

Another group project and another learning experience. From the very start of this project, it has been very challenging. The new brief challenged us in ways we had never before been asked to...this was the first project that involved us jumping from our sketchbooks in the studio to making an actual finished and working piece. Unlike the scale models where there can be the odd discrepancy - if things are slightly out on our furniture chances are that it will collapse!

A few sketches from my notebook (these were done when I should have really been concentrating on a talk that was being delivered to our class, whoops!).

Designers are well known for trying to think far too complicated and think in strange ways that sometimes 'normal' people cannot understand...well we fell into that trap. Trying to come up with a piece of furniture that was special to someone and that could hide something sentimental to them. It was fine drawing all these ideas into our sketchbooks but we were forgetting one thing...we would have to actually make this.

Now I'm not gonna lie, my skills in a workshop are very basic. I only had good old CDT in first and second year at high school but most of the time spent in there was either making pencil holders or just having a general muck about thanks to us having it last on a Friday afternoon... The only thing I gained from this was being able to sand and knowing how to saw things- this just really didn't prepare me for the shock I was about to get.

Getting a skills day allowed us to gain a basic understanding of the machines down in the workshop and learn a few basic joints (Half and half and mortise and tenon joint) then for the real thing.

To begin with things were slow. Everybody was in the same boat and most of the time was spent standing about trying to work things out for ourselves. This steep learning curve though provided a little self confidence in myself.

I didn't think that I could do half the things that I am learning in the workshop but I'm happy to report that I have successfully managed some manly things! Sawing, chiseling, drilling, you name it, I can do it! Never mind Bob the Builder... Okay well I'm not that good yet (judging by the cut on my hand that I got today while chiseling finger joints...) but I'm getting there.

So I thought I'd upload some pictures of what we've made so far. Don't laugh I'm so happy with it!

This is only part of the finished piece so far. This is a table that will be slotted in underneath the chair.

The table is decorated with these oak routes that will be attached to runners on the chair allowing the table to be slid in and out when needed.



Moving the table is easy with the handles that we have built into the table. These are outlined with a thin oak beading.

And if I've learnt anything so far - KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Has furniture lost it's value?

'Back in the days' when my mum and dad were 'wee bairns' furniture was seen as something more of a practical form rather than a design statement. Weeks sometimes even months was spent saving for furniture and even then it wasn't always new. Now we can go into IKEA and come out with furniture that can fill almost an entire house. Ask anyone back in the 60s about flat pack and their response might be a load of wolves run over by a tank... Not what we would think of when asked what flat pack is today! Why is it now then that we are filling our homes with 'cheap' and wasteful furniture? Has furniture lost it's meaning?

We can spend pennies on furniture now but is it just as good as before? Well no, in my opinion, it's not. Planned obsolescence is an important factor for designers now who intend for the furniture to last only a few years rather than a lifetime. Old furniture grew up with the family and it was never replaced - it in turn was almost part of the family. We are now leading a very disposable life! It's all fine that we have taken a stance to cut our carbon footprint and recycle paper and cans but how can we really try and help when we still being wasteful with our furniture consumption? Furniture in my opinion no longer has meaning - it is just something that fades into the background and is there for the short term until a new trend comes around and we replace it again...a vicious circle?

With thanks:
Photo: http://www.kitchenandtabletop.com/img/ikea_urban_chair.jpg